94 LORD READING

" 111 would it become any of us to discount in the slight-
est degree the earnest appeal of such an old and tried
friend of India as His Royal Highness ; but it is at least
permissible to say that the necessary accompaniment of
forgetfulness and forgiveness is the sense of equal citizen-
ship in the British Empire—and that in India—post-war
India—there is no room for arbitrary divisions into first-
class and second-class categories of friendship. This
recognition is the more essential since the goal of policy
in India is not in dispute. Lord Reading begins his Vice-
royalty with the great asset which has fallen to none of his
predecessors that ' Swaraj ' (self-government to translate
the word literally) is the avowed aim both of the British
Government and of the Indiin people. The word has been
used by the Duke of Connaught on behalf of the King-
Emperor, and whatever differences there are upon it relate
only to the time and methods by which it will be attained.
Indians and Englishmen are swimming together in the same
stream towards this goal.

" But India has not the same self-centredness as in pre-
war days. She has come into the comity of nations, and her
vision, enlarged by war experience, is no longer confined to
her own affairs. The last few years have happily witnessed
a wonderful unity between Hindus and Mahomedans, and
they now see, most political issues in common. There can be
no greater mistake than to suppose that the Hindus are not
in the fullest sympathy with their Mahomedan brethren in
reference to the Turkish question. The Prime Minister
told the House of Commons in February, 1920, that we could
not have won the war against Turkey without the aid of
Indian troops. They, indeed, bore the chief brunt of the
warfare in the Near and Middle East. Obviously, to the
large proportion of the Indian soldiery belonging to the
Islamic faith this service in Eastern lands imposed a far
greater sacrifice than can be realized by Western peoples
of other faiths. There is an essential unity of belief and a
basis of common civilization in Mahomedan countries. But
inheritors of this possession from India and other lands
linked with Allied countries fought in the War against